Mass Effect: Into the Unknown
by f1r3storm
Summary: After the destruction of the Reapers and breaking their almost endless cycle, life goes on in the galaxy. And for the first time in a long time, the galaxy is heading into an unknown and unwritten future once again.


A few hours had past since the victory over the Reapers. Once the Crucible had fired off it's energy wave, it not only brought the Reapers on and around Earth to fall, it spread through the mass relay network all over the galaxy. Thessia, Tuchanka, Palaven, Rannoch. They fell everywhere, the threat was over. But at a price. Upon spreading the Crucible's energy wave throughout the galaxy, the relays had been damaged and were offline, communication between the clusters was down as well.

When the Reapers fell, the soldiers on Earth didn't waste much time for celebration, but instead focused on looking for survivors. Searching through the area around where the Reapers had established a transport beam to the Citadel before it collapsed, Major Coats and several groups of three man squads were on the look-out for Commander Shepard.

No one had seen her since she made her way up to the Citadel and after searching the area for slightly more than one hour, Coats decided to request a few shuttles to pick them up and transport the search teams up to the Citadel. The once majestic heart of the galaxy was damaged as well when the Crucible fired off it's energy wave, it's massive arms broken at several points although certain areas were apparently still safe to reach. At least for the moment. Among them was the area around the Presidium and the Citadel Tower where the Crucible was docked and where Coats suspected Shepard to be - if alive or dead would remain to be seen.

Getting there and dropping them off was the easy thing, but the actual search proved to be a difficult task. The Presidium area was filled with debris and looked like a complete mess, accompanied by blazing fires here and there. Finding something in this chaos would need time and after three hours they only managed to thoroughly search through a small part of the area. But hope was there. Coats and his teams started to pick up some sort of life sign with their omni-tool the further they advanced. A weak signal, but nonetheless a stable one. All the debris didn't make it easy to pin down though, but apparently they were heading into the right direction.

„Corporal, do you see anything?" Coats howled across the area.

„Nothing, Sir," answered the soldier as he slowly closed in on Coats, having to climb over several pieces of debris until he finally reached him.

„I think the men need a little break, Sir. They've been on the run for several hours now."

„No," was Coats' brief reply. „Tell them to go on. We won't stop until we've found Shepard. We owe that to her."

„Sir...," said the soldier before he was interrupted by Coats.

„You heard my orders, Corporal," Coats noted in a slightly harsh tone.

„Yes, sir," answered the Corporal and went on to head back in the direction he came from, crawling over a few debris pieces again.

Coats and his teams kept on searching the area, scanning it with their omni-tools, making only slow progress with every passing minute. Two more hours passed without finding anything, until one of the soldiers broke radio silence.

„Major, we've had an increasing signal strength of the life sign for a few minutes now. I think we might be onto something."

„Copy that, i'll get over to your position," Coats replied and changed direction, digging his way through the wreckage. It took him a few minutes to arrive at their position and while going over there he already noticed the stronger life sign on his omni-tool as well.

„Sergeant... found anything?" he asked once he reached their location.

„No, Sir. But we think it's coming from this direction," the Sergeant answered, pointing at a slightly larger pile of debris at middle distance.

„Alright, let's head there," Coats said, patting firmly on the Sergeant's shoulder. „I hope you hit the nail here."

Having said that, Coats and the squad around him moved on towards their goal, getting more and more motivated and faster as the life sign's signal strength further increased on their way there. It took them roughly 20 minutes to get over there and now they were standing in front of this pile of rubble, trying to spot something with their flashlights.

„Anything?" Coats asked.

„Not yet," answered the Sergeant, carefully crawling further up the pile.

„I think i see something...," one of the other soldiers said from the other side of the pile. „Yeah... yeah! She's over here!"

„Is she alive?" Coats wanted to know as he moved along to the other side.

„Yes. She's breathing."

„Okay... let's clear up the way. But be careful with the debris," ordered Coats, starting to throw wreckage parts aside as he was looking down at Shepard not far beneath them.

They needed quite some effort to remove all the wreckage around the Commander as the second of three squads joined them and helped to break through. It almosed seemed like eternity to them, but after roughly half an hour they cleared the way enough for Coats to safely crawl down a little to where Shepard was lying.

„Hand me the medi-gel," said Coats as he scanned Shepard with his omni-tool, looking for injuries. Jolene was unconscious and he carefully turned her on her back before grabbing the medical supplies the Sergeant handed down to him. Then he placed some medi-gel on her more severe wounds before using his comm device.

„Shuttle one, this is Coats. Locate my position and get over here. We found Shepard and need a medevac."

„Roger that, we're on our way," answered the pilot.

As he looked down at Jolene again, Coats started to put some more medi-gel on her wounds, examining her obviously weakened body. He looked over the largely burnt armor which was hardly recognizable anymore and was missing parts here and there, showing some dirty, blood-smeared skin of hers. Her red hair was no longer tied together, but rather messy and ruffled while traces of dried blood from her nose, mouth and eye could be seen on her face. Having finished with the basic medical treatments, he put one of his arms behind her upper body, the other beneath her knees, slowly lifting her up.

„Help me to get her out of here. Carefully," Coats said to the other soldiers as he stood up, lifting Shepard further up towards the others, who grabbed her cautiously on her shoulders and arms, placing her down next to gap in the pile of debris where they took her out.

„Major, we've found someone else," one of the soldiers from the third team in the area said over radio, hesitating to continue his report. „It's... it's Admiral Anderson, Sir. … He's dead."

„Ah, bollocks," Coats cursed as the shuttle arrived their position. They were unable to land at the spot so they had to go down as much as possible, hovering smoothly over the countless pieces of wreckage. Two of the soldiers climbed up into the shuttle as it's side door opened whereas the others lifted up Shepard again so they could take her up into the shuttle. After struggling for a few moments, they managed to pick her up and slowly placed her on the floor of the shuttle's cabin. And while Coats crawled up as well, two of them remained on the ground.

„Call in the other shuttle to pick you up," he said, standing at the door. „We're gonna take Anderson with us and then head back."

„Yes, Sir," the Sergeant said as Coats closed the door and a few seconds later the shuttle took off again, slowly flying across the area towards the other teams position. It didn't take them long to arrive there, merely about 15 seconds. A quick travel by air, which would have taken considerably longer in the mess below them. Once again the pilot brought the shuttle down, letting it hover in the air while Coats opened the hatch.

His comrades were already standing at the ready, carrying Anderson's lifeless body and moved him up inside the shuttle as well. They placed him down besides Shepard and while his fellows took a seat, Coats kneeled next to Anderson. He took off the Admiral's comm device from his ear and placed his hand on Anderson's shoulder, lowering his head and taking a moment to reflect. It had been a long day for all of them. A day full of fights, death, losses and sacrifices. But also a day of victory, which gave him hope after all they've been through since the Reapers arrived months ago.

As he raised his head and opened his eyes again, he saw Shepard moving slightly. For a moment he thought the movement was caused by the slightly shaking shuttle, but then Jolene opened her eyes a little bit, looking right at him.

„Commander...," Coats said and moved right next to her.

She obviously was very weak and tried to speak, but she needed a few attempts before she could form a clear sentence. „Did we win?" she asked.

Coats grinned as she said that. Apparently the first thing she cared about was the fate of the galaxy, nothing else. „Yeah, we won," he said. „Thanks to you, Shepard."

„Where am i?" Shepard asked, speaking slowly as she sounded very weak and exhausted.

„In a shuttle. We just picked you up from the Citadel and we're going to take you to a hospital now."

„Get me... Normandy," Jolene murmured.

„I'm afraid the Normandy isn't around Commander," Coats replied.

„Where is my ship?" she asked.

„We don't know. The Normandy's missing. We tried to establish contact, but no response"

„Some... someone's gotta know... where she is," Jolened noted, coughing in between.

„Wait a moment," Coats said as he focused on his comm device. „Coats to Hackett. We've found Shepard. She's alive. But she wants to know where the Normandy is."

„I'm glad to hear that. It's still a bit chaotic up here. The fleets were heading to a rendezvous point, we need to check if anyone catched their route. But only a few ships have returned so far," the Admiral said while Jolene listened to his words. „Don't worry about that now, Shepard. I'll take care of it. But we need to get you to a hospital now."

„Screw that hospital...," Jolene hissed, feeling pain in her chest as she tried to move a little.

„Commander, it's nice to hear your voice, although...," countered Hackett, but was interrupted.

„Get me aboard the Orizaba at least."

„Is the Orizaba still in one piece?" asked Coats.

„She is," noted Hackett. „Okay, i'll let them know you're on your way. Anything else, Major?"

„Actually... yes. We found Admiral Anderson, Sir. But... he... he's dead," Coats said.

Seconds passed as Hackett didn't find the right words to answer, before he finally managed to gather himself again. „Understood. Thank you, Major. Hackett out."

Upon leaving the Citadel area the shuttle headed straight towards the SSV Orizaba. The Dreadnought showed quite a few battle scars on it's hull but overall seemed to have overcome the fight without heavy damages. The enormous vessel appeared quite majestic as the sun emerged behind Earth and the ship while the shuttle approached the Dreadnought's shuttle bay.

On the Orizaba's bridge, Rear Admiral Hannah Shepard watched the lone shuttle closing in on her ship. After being recruited to work on the Crucible and being promoted to Rear Admiral by Hackett, Hannah took command of the Orizaba again once the construction of the Crucible was finished and the fleet headed out to Earth. Now she was eager to see her daughter again, who just happened to have saved the whole galaxy from it's biggest threat. For a moment she smiled to herself and turned away from the window, walking over to the elevator in the CIC.

The shuttle was just a few moments away from entering the Orizaba's shuttle bay, slowing down a bit during the approach. Jolene tried to look around but was barely able to. And only now she managed to spot Anderson lying next to her.

„Anderson...," she said quietly, trying to raise her arm and reach out to him, but she failed to do so.

„Commander," Coats interfered while placing his hand on her lower arm. „He won't answer."

„He... is he... dead?" Jolene stumbled.

Coats just nodded in response to her question. Shepard moved her head back again, just staring at the ceiling of the shuttle's cabin with her half opened eyes. A tear slowly ran down her cheek while she closed her eyes again.

„I... i feel so... tired," she said, becoming quieter as those words left her mouth, before she finally passed out again. Coats scanned her again with his omni-tool to make sure she's alright and deactived his helpful tool again once he noted that her life sign was still stable.

By the time Hannah stepped out of the elevator in the shuttle bay the transport vehicle was about to touch down on the floor. Besides Hannah there were also two medical teams around, waiting with their stretchers for the arrivals. The shuttle dropped down smoothly on the floor and when the side door opened, Coats stepped out, saluting the Rear Admiral.

„Major, how is she?" Hannah asked while she watched the medics placing Jolene carefully on their stretcher.

„She just passed out again. Apart from that she's badly wounded, but apparently stable. I'm no medic though, Ma'am."

„Alright. Thank you for getting her out," Hannah said. „If you and your team need a rest, feel free to stay."

„We owed her, Ma'am. And thanks for the offer. But with your permission we're gonna go back to the ground, looking for survivors," Coats noted.

„Of course, Major. Good luck," she answered, saluted him and followed the medics to the elevator.

Coats stepped back into the shuttle and dropped down on one of the seats while the door closed again and the shuttle lifted off, left the shuttle bay a few seconds later and headed back towards Earth.


End file.
